American OZ: An Astonishing Year Inside Traveling Carnivals at State Fairs & Festivals: Hitchhiking From California to New York, Alaska to Mexico
Written by Michael Sean Comerford
Narrated by Michael Sean Comerford
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
“MAJESTIC! ... DEEP OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE!” – CHICAGO TRIBUNE
American OZ is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous year in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You’ll never see your state fair or neighborhood festival the same again.
It’s a new classic American road story! Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working shoulder-to-shoulder with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals.
Read stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last King of the Sideshows. An insult dunk tank clown is shot. Masked gunmen rob his carnival. And a young showman friend dies on the road.
Hitchhike with him to shows in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, and Florida where he works in a freak show. He becomes the #1 hitchhiker in the USA.
Travel to the lawless foothills of Mexico to a village that empties out of men each season as they head north to carnivals
Explore issues of the American caste system, working poor, immigration, and the life force of collective joy.
People seek love and meaning on the road. And we find the world runs on untold stories.
Michael Sean Comerford
Michael Sean Comerford is an award-winning former international journalist who worked in Chicago, New York, Budapest, and Moscow.He’s bicycled across the USA four times and hitchhiked across America, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. He’s ridden freight trains and rounded up cattle out West, studied Buddhism in the Himalayas, and won a heavyweight boxing championship in Ireland.Comerford toured almost 100 countries, swam the headwaters of the Nile, fought off a hippo attack, and toured ecological disaster areas in the Amazon.He lives in the Chicago area to be near his daughter Grace. He’s promised her that he’ll stay closer to home for a while.His byline has appeared in the Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Copley News Service, New York Daily News, Budapest Sun, Budapest Business Journal, and The Moscow Times.He has a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism; a journalism fellowship at the University of Maryland, College Park; video training certificate from the Poynter Institute of Media Studies; a B.A. from Marquette University; junior year at University of College Cork, Ireland.Comerford has won several Peter Lisagor, Associated Press, and other awards.He lives in the Chicago area to be near his daughter Grace. He's promised her that he'll stay closer to home for a while.
Related to American OZ
Related audiobooks
The Murders That Made Us: How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adickted with Andy Dick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barnum: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dangerous Animals Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poop Diaries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Standup Comedy's Golden Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inheritance: A Family on the Front Lines of the Battle Against Alzheimer's Disease Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coming to Las Vegas: A true tale of sex, drugs & Sin City in the 70's Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Opioid, Indiana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Detroit: An American Autopsy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dopeworld: Adventures in the Global Drug Trade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cauldron of Blood: The Matamoros Cult Killings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHell's Half Acre [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life on Stage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPopulation: 485 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grand Gypsy: Around The World With The Circus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barnum's Own Story: The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digging for the Truth: One Man's Epic Adventure Exploring the World's Greatest Archaeological Mysteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Original Sins: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Memoirs For You
Sociopath: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for American OZ
3 ratings0 reviews